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The
story opens with the birth of John David, known as JD, Dury, who is orphaned within
seconds of his birth due to a snow storm-induced accident. He is adopted by
Leroy and Emma Bolton, and eventually flees from a group of six bullies. Leroy,
a retired Special Forces instructor, punishes him severely and makes it clear that
JD is to never flee from anyone again and JD beats the bullies with a stick the
next day while Leroy beats their fathers in a fight a short time later.
Then, a
few years later, the bullies strike back and almost beat JD to death. Leroy puts
JD in homeschooling and begins training him in the art of combat, warning JD
that the training he has received comes with great responsibility, before dying
at his adopted son’s fifteenth birthday dinner.
As the United State economy
continues going downhill, JD begins working to help support his family, but this
eventually leads to a feud with Bob Tower, a man very well connected in the
local underworld. The feud ends in a PayPerView cage match and JD kills Bob
after Bob obtains a knife from an ally during the fight. JD is then convinced
to join the army to escape retaliation and swiftly rises through the ranks
after playing vital roles in victories against various warlords and terrorist
groups.
Meanwhile, a series of presidents is struggling with reviving the United
States economy. While one succeeds for a time, a computer attack, teamed with a strategic
assassination, undoes all the progress in a day. And the next president faces a
series of terrorist attacks that make 9/11 “look like a bloody nose.” JD leads
an attack on a terrorist-controlled building but is forced to destroy the
building, along with the terrorists, to prevent them from setting off
one of the most powerful nuclear weapons ever made. Eventually, these attacks
are traced to Central America, and the entire United States Army, followed later by
the National Guard, is sent to attack them. With things going badly on the home front, the president asks for UN Peacekeepers and a Chinese force led by General Sung
is sent. After a battle, however, it is discovered that the Chinese are actually
aiding the US’s enemies in Central America, but this discovery comes too late.
The Chinese launch a Neutron bomb Strike on Central America, and the US launches
a counterstrike, leaving billions dead, and with the bulk of the US military destroyed, Sung seizes control.
JD is sent by his mentor, who is the commander of what’s
left of the US Army, to link up with fringe groups and militias in the occupied
US to form an organized resistance. But eventually, the Chinese locate and
destroy the headquarters of the US military remnants. JD then finds himself as the
commander of the resistance. The rest of the story follows the conflict,
including JD allying with many former enemies, but also leaves room for a
sequel, though I suspect its focus will be much different if it comes.
I give the book a 5.5 out of 10. I thought the beginning
dragged on too long. Also, there are some decisions made by characters in the
story that, to me, make absolutely no sense, and there is little mention of how
most of the nations outside the Americas are reacting to the events of the
story. It does do a good job of showing both sides cross into war crimes
territory rather than making the resistance and it allies purely good and the
Chinese purely evil, though, with a few cases of resistance members executing prisoners
who have surrendered. However, it always explains what drove the resistance
members who committed the acts to do so to cast them in a more sympathetic
light and which side is supposed to considered good is never left in doubt. I
also feel the story could have used more scenes further away from wherever the
current main character is, and I don’t recall many full collaborators with the
occupying forces appearing, unless you count people whose families have Chinese
guns to their heads. This is something I find incredibly jarring and
unrealistic for this type of conflict.
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